Onboardly – helping startups with content marketing and PR

19Aug2014

| Last update:
05Oct2015

You hear people talking about content marketing everywhere. It’s just one of those things that is on everybody’s lips, and you can’t help but be curious about it, or even get a taste of it. So, startups from all over the world, get Onboard(ly)!

Renée Warren, co-founder and CEO at Onboardly, answers my questions

Renée Warren was kind enough to answer a couple of questions I had for her.

First, I was curious to know what was the idea behind Onboardly. It all started four years ago, when “the idea for the company really came over a plate of BBQ chicken and ribs at SXSW“, says Renée. There, she met Heather Anne Carson, who is also a co-founder. At the time, Renée was working for startups, doing social media and content marketing, and Heather was also working for startups, but in PR. They bonded right away, and noticed how much their “services complimented one another“. Since they both “lived and breathed the startup scene for some time“, they decided it was time to join their forces, and “created a go-to marketing plan for startups that followed a three-phased journey“.

I also wanted to know why she thinks it’s so important for startups to have a PR and a content strategy. Her answer strongly confirmed what my thoughts were: “To ‘only’ do PR or content marketing would be a disservice to startup companies“. For the clients that reach out Onboardly, what the company does is to “use these marketing channels as tools to help increase visibility, credibility and reach for their brand and position the founder(s) as a thought leader(s) in their respective spaces”.

Does my startup need a content marketing strategy?

Of course it does, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this article. But are you able to make that strategy for yourself? If the answer is no, then you’re in the right place.

Onboardly is a company that was specifically born to deal with PR and content marketing for your startup. Its founders recognized the need of growth, which appears somewhere along the development of a startup.

Onboardly made a cute infographic in which they show you what are the three phases that will guarantee your startup’s success with content marketing. I personally think that it’s best to hire a company that knows what it’s doing, and focuses only on that. It’s more efficient this way, and it’s a win-win situation.

Heather Anne Carson, the President and Co-Founder of Onboardly, wrote a guest post for KISSmetrics, in which she talked about how is PR connected to content marketing, and how these two work together. Her advice for startups and entrepreneurs is to “use social media to research and discover influencers in your industry. Study the content they share, what’s important to them, and what they like to talk about“. She also says that “With so much content being created online, it’s even harder to stand out. That’s why content marketing needs PR behind it to thrive. Because unless your content is being seen by potential customers, it will be doing nothing“.

To sum it up, a firm and solid relationship can only be established on these two channels.

Don’t let your startup fail

Content marketing done right, means that you need to do it consistently. And for that, you need a strategy. If you say you’re going to do a blog post every two days, then do it. But don’t post articles just to have something on your blog. Quality also matters. If you’re going to be consistent, then you’ll need to invest a lot of time in writing the articles, and also in the process that comes before and after publishing them.

If your startup struggles with getting the PR and content marketing strategy right, you should consider Onboardly. How have you dealt so far with the problems that you encountered during the evolution of your startup? Let me know in the comments below.